| I made a jig to cut the recess for the rear control panel cover. A bearing guided router bit makes a quick and professional job of it. |
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| Routers excel at this kind of work - a good jig is worth its weight in gold! |
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| I make the cover from some 2mm thick black plastic sheet. Using another template I roughed out the sheet slightly oversize on the fret saw. |
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| Then attach the template to the plastic with a bit of double-sided sticky tape and using another bearing guided router bit (with the bearing on the bottom this time) trim the cover to size. |
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| Prise the two pieces apart and voila! A perfect copy. A little cleanup with a file to remove any "frizz" and its done. |
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| And the cover in place - a perfect fit! I've taped it in place so I don't lose it while I work on the neck next. |
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| I need to make a slot for the
truss rod. The truss rod allows you to tension the neck against the
pull of the strings, keeping the neck straight. I fitted a router with two fences to sandwich the neck blank in between them, and centred the cutter. Mark out the start and end of the slot and take multiple passes until the full depth is reached. A vacuum attachment makes for an easy life. |
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| Done! Now I need to cut the headstock angle so I can carve the access slot for the truss rod adjustment nut. |
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| Checking that the table is square to the blade, cut just outside of the layout line. I've only cut the upper surface for the moment. |
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| Then plane the headstock flat, again working back to the lines. |
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| A little work with files and gouges gives a clean result. Next I make a fillet of wood to fit over the truss rod - this isn't 100% necessary with this kind if rod, but I don't want any chance of the rod rattling in its recess after the fingerboard goes on. |
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| With a little glue and plenty of clamps the strip is glued in place. |
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| The strip is planed back flush with the surface of the neck. |
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| Next I routed out the recesses for the pickups. I removed the excess material on the drill press then, using yet another template, routed them to final shape. |
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| I squared up the corners with a chisel/ I'll do any final tweaking once I have the pickups to hand to check for clearance. |
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